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Saturday, September 30, 2006

Famous Soviet cartoonist is 106 years old

Author: Sergey Romanov

Soviet cartoonist Boris Yefimov has celebrated his 106th birthday on September 28.

His first cartoon has appeared in 1919. He saw and depicted Lenin, Petlyura, Kamenev, Bukharin, Trotsky, Mussolini, Stalin, Ribbentrop, Goering... He is still full of life and his memory is still clear.

- What have you felt during the Nuremberg trial, where you personally saw your "heroes"?

- I rejoiced. Three main "Gs" - Hitler, Goebbels and Himmler - were already dead, but Hess, Ribbentrop, Keitel and Goering sat at a distance of two meters from me.

His career was not without dark periods. E.g. he was a cartoonist at Stalin's showtrials, and he is ashamed of it. Nevertheless, some of his work rings as true today, as it did back then: